FOXBORO – Patriots head coach Bill Belichick says Dominique Easley “is a very disruptive player who showed up against good competition.”

Problem is, he hasn’t shown up enough.

Pick a knee, either knee, and the Patriots’ first-round draft pick has had major surgery on it.

In November 2011, the 6-foot-2, 288-pound defensive lineman from Florida tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a game. This past September, he tore the ACL and medial meniscus in his right knee during a non-contact drill in practice.

Despite all that, Belichick gave Easley a clean bill of health.

If saying “we feel like he’ll be all right” constitutes a clean bill of health, that is.

When it came to exercising the 29th selection in Thursday night’s opening round – surprise; they didn’t trade down for multiple picks later – the Patriots “felt like (Easley) was the best player at that point.

“The way the board ended up, we felt very good about Dominique being available at 29,” said Belichick. “He’s been a very good player in a real good program. They’re well coached down there with Coach (Will) Muschamp. You can see him playing against a lot of good players in that conference.

“I thought Dominique played very well. He’s a versatile guy that’s played different positions along the defensive line. So we’ll just see how it all comes together here, but I’m glad he was able to last that long. I’m looking forward to having him.”

The coach absolutely raved about that versatility.

“He’s played everywhere along the defensive line so I don’t know where you put him,” said Belichick. “I’d say you don’t see a lot of guys that do that.

“I mean, he lines up on the nose. He lines up on the guard. He lines up on the tackle. He lines up outside a lot of times. So you can see him playing all those spots.”

Again, just not often enough.

Easley’s collegiate career consisted of 32 games over four years, time in which he totaled 72 tackles, 5.5 sacks.

Easley did earn all-Southeastern Conference second-team honors in 2012 and his addition does come in an area where the Patriots can use help – a defensive line where there are age and health concerns on the inside (Tommy Kelly is 33, Vince Wilfork 32 and both are coming off season-ending injuries) and a need for someone to help Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich carry the load on the outside.

Of course, that was before Easley said playing alongside Wilfork was “going to be a great experience to get to learn from an old guy, a veteran that’s real good.

For his part, Belichick sounded enthused about what the rookie can bring to the equation.

“He’s a very disruptive player in college,” the coach said. “In college, I would say his stats might have been a little bit deceiving because a lot of times he was the disruptive person on the play, but he wasn’t the guy who ended up making the tackle. Or it wouldn’t be on the stats sheet, but the reason the play wasn’t successful was his penetration and ability to be disruptive.

“I think he has a good knack for that,” said Belichick. “He’s an explosive player.”

When his knees are in one piece, that is.

Glen Farley may be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.